Lee Greenwood still celebrates his 'U.S.A.'

Published 6:30 am, Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Whether you love Lee Greenwood's anthem God Bless the U.S.A., or whether it makes you wince in pain, there's one thing that's clear.

There ain't no doubt he loves this land.

The song, a celebration of freedom, has twice been a hit on music charts. It's become a staple at many Fourth of July fireworks shows. It's been released on half a dozen of Greenwood's albums, including two greatest hits discs and an album called American Patriot that also featured his renditions of America the Beautiful, The Battle Hymn of the Republic and other songs of national pride.

That the song enjoys a rise in popularity every time America goes to war or is the target of an act of terrorism makes its success bittersweet for the 61-year-old country singer.

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"It's like, 'Oh my God, this is going to last forever,'" says Greenwood.

"With the military, it's their anthem," he says. "The soldiers tell me, 'We can't get by without your song.' It's a modern-day anthem, not like the traditional ones like God Bless America, which is one of my favorites."

Granted, by the time Greenwood's song was first released in 1984, the days of John Philip Sousa's marches and Kate Smith's God Bless America were some 50 years passed. And though the song swells and builds to climax like those classics, its perfectly syncopated drums place it undoubtedly in the '80s.

The songwriting, too, is more a reflection of the classics than original inspiration. Consider the direct lifting of America the Beautiful's song-closing lyric "from sea to shining sea," or Greenwood's use of the country's geographical features to span the land. When he penned, "From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee," was he recalling This Land Is Your Land, where Woody Guthrie wrote "From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters"?

But God Bless the U.S.A. endures, and Greenwood thinks it's because the song affirms the mission of U.S. soldiers.

"It tells them that, regardless of what news media might tell them at home, they know they're there for the right reasons," Greenwood says. "It's cool for me, too, because I know I did something good for America."

The song is about the spirit of Americans, he says, and not a particular war or event. So he can't foresee a case where the song would be held up as anthem for an effort he doesn't believe in.

"I don't think anybody'd use it for a cause that wouldn't be positive for America," he says. "I just believe that its application would be in an American theater."

As many causes as it has stood for -- most notably the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the ongoing fighting in Iraq now -- it's worth noting that no single event prompted Greenwood to write the song.

"There's many events during my life that I drew from," he says. "I was on the road 300 days the first two years of my career. And I kept thinking, I've got to do this song before I get too far down the road."

And of its success? "Sometimes when you have your heart in something, it really pays you back," he says.